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May 14, 2019
ICYMI: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman & Ambassador
Mark D. Wallace Call for Additional Sanctions on
Iran's Petrochemical Industry
(New York,
N.Y.) - On May 10,
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chairman Senator Joseph I.
Lieberman and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace co-authored an op-ed on FoxNews.com
applauding the Trump Administration's "maximum
pressure" policy against Iran, including designating the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
and eliminating sanctions waivers on the purchase of Iranian oil. But
as they wrote, more can be done, and that means "plugging the
sanctions gaps on the other critical pillar of Iran's energy
export-dependent economy: petrochemicals."
Senator Lieberman on Monday was also a guest on Fox
Business Network's Mornings With Maria Bartiromo to discuss
the op-ed and the situation in the Middle East. He stated that the
Iran sanctions are working and called for maintaining the maximum
pressure campaign against the regime. Excerpts from the interview and
the full op-ed by Senator Lieberman and Ambassador Wallace may be
read below.
To read Sen. Lieberman and Ambassador Wallace's joint
op-ed on Fox News, please click here.
To view Sen. Lieberman's interview on Fox Business
Network, please click here.
Sen. Lieberman: JCPOA Withdrawal and Subsequent
Sanctions are "Seriously" Hurting Iran.
MARIA BARTIROMO: "You mentioned Iran. I want to
talk about the pressure on Iran because the U.S. Air Force says that
B-52 bombers have been deployed to the Middle East as a message to
Iran. This comes as the U.S. announced it's no longer extending
waivers to countries doing any business with Iran. Eight countries
now losing that opportunity. Joe you're out with the new op-ed with
former UN Ambassador Mark Wallace on Foxnews.com titled this: 'Trump
Should Toughen Sanctions On Iran.' In it, you write, 'To truly
achieve 'maximum pressure' on the regime, President Trump needs to
make his sanctions airtight across Iran's economy. This means
plugging the sanction gaps on the other critical pillar of Iran's
energy export-dependent economy: petrochemicals.' Tell us more."
SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN: "OK, so the main point of
the op-ed on the Fox News website, but also generally our feeling
[at] United Against Nuclear Iran - thank you to the Trump
Administration, thanks to President Trump. He had the guts to take us
out of a bad nuclear agreement with Iran. That's the beginning. Big
change. Second - he imposed sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps, also big change and increased those sanctions. Iran is
hurting - so it's begun to threaten us and I appreciate very much
that the President has basically said with actions, sending American
military forces over to the region, don't think you're going to
strike at us and not have us strike back at you. So now you've got
the Iranian government in the last few days saying one - President
Rouhani of Iran says this is going to be tough on our people, it's
going to be like the Iran-Iraq War of the 80's, when conditions were
miserable in Iran and that shows you how seriously we're hurting
them."
Sen. Lieberman: "I Think We've Got to Hold
Tough" on the Iranians.
BARTIROMO: "So where do we go now? Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo is on his way there now making a stop in Brussels
to talk about this threat from Iran. How do you see this playing
out?"
SEN. LIEBERMAN: "Well I think we've got to hold
tough and we are holding tough and the Iranians are on the defensive.
Our European allies, the Russians, the Chinese who signed that Iran
nuclear agreement are complaining that we've come out of it. But I
think in this one, with Iran, we've got the momentum on our side.
It's not going to be easy, it's not without risk, but we've changed
the reality on the ground and I think we've just got to stick with
where we are. The Russians will always, we've got to understand, try
to take advantage of every situation to our detriment. They are not
our allies. That's why I think Secretary Pompeo's talks directly with
President Putin coming up in the next couple of days are really
important."
Sen. Lieberman: The "Iran Nuclear Agreement is
Dead. And Nobody is Going to Bring it Back."
BARTIROMO: "Well, what should be said during that
meeting with Putin?"
SEN. LIEBERMAN: "I have enough confidence in Mike
Pompeo to believe that he will say this, to say that we have decided
that that Iran nuclear agreement is dead. And nobody is going to
bring it back and that the Iranians are our enemy. They're supporters
of terrorism, they're supporting aggression throughout the Middle
East and they're threatening us long term that Russia better
understand that we've decided that this is a priority, a national
interest. In my opinion, it's the most significant threat. Iran
constitutes the most significant threat to the U.S. that there is in
the world. And therefore really to basically say to President Putin
'Stay out of this!' Now he's too often come into it in a calculating
way to keep Iran going."
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